Would like to have everyones opinion on the best .243 youth rifle. I am going to by one for my 9 year old son. He has been using a 30-30 which has been fine. Never have owned .243 but would like to have one. Have been browsing the the internet and comparing different brands. Have always owned Winchester and Browning rifles and shotguns.I saw Weatherby has a package that includes a regular size stock. Do other brands offer the same. Thanks for any help on choosing a current and long term use rifle.

Go with the .243 Rossi makes a youth combo with interchangeable barrels. I got one for my daughter it has a .22 barrel and a .243 and a 20 gauge barrel. All of these are single shot of course. My daughter killed her first buck last year at 150 yards using the .243 with a winchester ballistic silvertip 90 grain bullet.

daddydip wrote:bill ,we use a 30-30 around here more like a bush gun for rifle hunting in close brush, the .243 will reach out a tad more ,ya think?

Fact; The 30-30 has taken more deer and blackbear than all the other calibers added up. Every deer hunter has or had a 30-30. It has to be the most popular caliber of all time.

My brush gun is a 444 marlin with a 265gr or a 300gr bullet. We took one blackbear that was under 25yds away with my 338wm. I don't have any long shots.

The swede mauser carbines make excellent youth guns. Either model 96/38 carl gustaf/obendorf or the model 38 husqvarna. There are also modern guns offered in 6,5mm swede too. These is also a shorter carbine offered too its a swede m94 these can be found sporterized at gun shows too. For more swede info go to; http://www.rebooty.com/~dutchman/

My 1907 carl gustaf M96 swede mauser will shoot 1 1/2" groups @ 100yds using sellier & bellot 139gr sp ammo with no scope. I met some SWAT guys at the local range and my 1907 rifle shot better groups than some of there 308 swat scoped rifles did. They were impressed at my 6.5mm 100 year old swede mauser.

The swedish mausers were very well maintaned. If you look under the wood stock near thetrigger guard there are stamps of crowns in the wood. This tells us how many times the gun was pulled out of action and arsenal repaired. To me the more stamps the better condition gun i have. This is why there so accurate even to today.

I'm technically misunderstood at times i guess its been this way my whole life so why should it change now.

I love the 243 rifle for hunting about everything, Gray cub and I have 4 of them I think.Prices on the Rossi single shots have gone up to over $300 now, you can pick up a pretty nice Savage at Walmart now for around $270 but a Savage with acutrigger will be in a better line of gun costing $400+ and up.I like Remington 700's, just picked one up last week in a 223 cal. with scope for $398Gray Cub has a new Rem. youth 243, it feels really good even to me.For longer range hunting I like the 25.06

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.Ben Franklin